


Meet Mulan

by lizandletdie



Series: The Adoption!verse [27]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-20
Updated: 2015-07-20
Packaged: 2018-04-10 05:22:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4378877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizandletdie/pseuds/lizandletdie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Katie Gold brings her new friend/girlfriend home to meet her father, as requested.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meet Mulan

**Author's Note:**

> I just really felt like writing Katie being in love with a girl.

Katie had always been closer to her dad. Not that she didn’t get along good with her mom or anything, but her dad had stayed at home with her starting when she was around five and there wasn’t a time she didn’t remember him always being around. Still, some things were a lot easier with your mom compared with your dad, and talking about boys (or, well, _girls_ these days) was definitely one of them.

Mom was always good for a mani/pedi if Katie asked, and if she did it on the weekend lunch was almost always on the table, too. It was a nice little tradition and Katie liked doing it. When she’d been a kid, they’d gone out to the American Girl store one Saturday a month to have tea with her doll and Mom was always so good at being super serious about treating the dumb thing like a real person. That was another thing that had always been easier with Mom than Dad. Dad hadn’t really been quite as good at that kind of make believe.

He could tell incredible stories at bedtime, but she really didn’t think he’d ever quite gotten the whole doll thing.

Katie knew her dad was still a little upset she hadn’t told him about her date ahead of time. Like, she  _knew_  he’d think it was a boy but she guessed a part of her had thought he’d be relieved enough that it wasn’t to let it slide and the other part had kind of wanted to see what he’d do. Apparently what he was going to do was be hurt. She almost wished he’d been angry instead, because at least that way she wasn’t the asshole.

She really hoped her mom had some idea of what to do about it, because despite what everyone thought Katie really didn’t like to cause too much trouble. She liked to skirt the edge of trouble, but she’d always relied on charm and blind luck to keep her out of it – especially where her father was concerned. Whenever somebody actually got hurt, she always hated it until she was able to make amends.

Mom had to have known why Katie was so desperate to go get nails done the morning after her date, but she didn’t say anything the entire time they were at the studio and by the time she was sipping bubble tea with her nails painted a completely crazy hot pink color Katie was about to explode waiting for somebody to say  _something_  about it.

“So I guess Dad’s still pretty shocked,” she finally blurted out because if Mom wasn’t going to bring it up then somebody had to.

Mom just shrugged nonchalantly and Katie was pretty sure her bluff was being called but once she’d started talking she couldn’t stop unless somebody else started. It was definitely a problem.

“I didn’t really mean to hurt his feelings or anything,” she continued. “I don’t know, I guess I didn’t think it was that big a deal. I mean, what difference does it make, right? It’s not like I’m gonna marry her or anything and even if I did it’s not like he wouldn’t be able to have grandkids. And you guys already have Henry. And Bae was half adopted, so it’s not like it’s that big a deal to you guys.”

Katie was so glad that nobody from her school could hear her rambling incoherently about adopting children with a girl she’d gone on exactly one date with, but her mother had been in the middle of her drink during that rant and was now choking into a napkin.

“Katie, what the hell?” her mom exclaimed as soon as she stopped sputtering. “As much as I love your brother and Henry, you are too young for me to worry about more grandkids.”

“Sorry,” Katie replied, feeling herself blushing hard. “I didn’t mean it. I don’t know why I even brought that up, we’re not that serious.”

“What’s going on with you?”

“I don’t know,” Katie admitted. “I just hate Dad being mad at me about something so stupid.”

“Your father isn’t mad at you,” her mother said kindly, putting her arm around Katie’s shoulders. “His feelings are hurt, but you know that already.”

“Yeah, I do,” Katie replied. “But I just don’t know how to fix it. Like, I can’t go back and un-date her.”

“It wasn’t about that,” Mom said. “Your dad just wants to be included more in your life is all. You were always so close, and now you’re growing up and that’s okay, but he’s worried that he’s going to lose his little girl. If you’re worried about hurting his feelings, maybe you should talk to him about some of this.”

“He did ask me to let her meet him,” Katie confessed. “I could do that.”

“I think that would be a good start.”

——

Mulan had been oddly okay with the idea of meeting Katie’s parents. Katie wasn’t sure she’d have been so cool about it in the other girl’s place, but Mulan said she was great at parents. Privately, Katie wasn’t real sure how many parents Mulan could possibly have met given how small their high school was and how many gay girls there were there, but she was going to take her friend’s word for it.

They’d made quick plans to go to the mall after dinner. It was an airtight excuse. Casual enough that Dad couldn’t feel threatened by it and with a timetable loose enough that they could leave as soon as things got awkward.

“Mulan is taking me to the mall,” Katie said as casually as she could, hopping up on the counter next to where her dad was washing the dishes. “Is that okay?”

It was okay and they both knew it. Katie’s curfew was eleven on weekends as long as her parents knew where she was and who she was with and there wasn’t any good reason for keeping her at home.

“Is she picking you up here?” he asked a little coldly, glancing over at her.

“Yeah,” Katie replied. “I told her you wanted to meet her.”

He was trying not to smile and Katie was trying not to let him know she’d noticed as she picked at the skin around her nails.

“She was okay with that?” he asked her and Katie knew that this was a test, too.

“She was excited about it,” she replied. “Said she’d love to meet you.”

“Did she?”

Katie nodded, but just then the doorbell rang and she hopped off the counter and ran to get it. She heard her dad turn the dishwasher on as she skidded to a halt in front of the door.

“Hey,” she said as she swung the door open to reveal her friend (girlfriend?) standing on the porch. “You ready for this?”

“He’s your dad, not an ogre,” Mulan replied. “I’m pretty sure I can handle myself.”

Katie took a deep breath and nodded. This was set to be a really interesting twenty minutes.

Arthur hadn’t quite gotten a good look at Katie’s date last night beyond registering it was a girl, so his first real look at the now infamous Mulan was Katie nervously bringing her into the kitchen. She was certainly a pretty girl, and short and slight enough that she didn’t seem like she’d be able to overpower Katie which some primal part of his brain counted as a mark in her favor. She was wearing a red and black letterman jacket over a pair of jeans and some sneakers, and had her long black hair in a ponytail.

The thing that sold him on her, though, was the way Katie was squeezing her hand nervously as the two girls walked into the room and the comforting smile Mulan shot his daughter as they turned the corner to where he could see them. Dammit. He had to like her after that.

“You must be Mulan,” he said, reaching out to shake her hand.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Gold,” she replied, releasing Katie to take the proffered hand. “Katie’s told me a lot about you.”

Mulan made eye contact, which was good. She was at least taking this very seriously which he definitely liked in girls who were going to be driving his daughter around.

“Has she?” he replied, glancing at his daughter in time to see her biting her lip in a way that looked so much like her mother it was hard to believe. “Nothing too terrifying, I hope.”

“Nothing bad,” Mulan said earnestly. “I actually think it’s really cool how close you two are, my dad and I don’t live together anymore.”

He wasn’t sure if it was a line or not. If it was a line, it was a good one. He didn’t know this girl from Adam and had no way to know if she were telling the truth about any of it but it was hard not to respond to her comment on his relationship with his daughter with some level of gratitude. Arthur had spent Katie’s entire life trying to be there for her every second of every day just in case she needed him, and she’d never had any secrets from him until now. It was probably the fear of fracturing that relationship that had him the most upset with this new development in her life.

“That must be difficult,” he finally replied. “For both of you.”

She shrugged and he could tell she’d wanted it to be a dismissive gesture, as though the furthest thing from her mind were missing her father, but her face didn’t quite land.

“He’s in the Navy,” she finally said. “He and my mom split up when I was a kid and he spends a lot of time on the submarine he works on. I see him when he comes into port, though.”

“So how long have you and Katie known each other?” he asked her, hoping to steer the conversation someplace safer.

“We went to different middle schools,” Mulan replied easily. “I was at West. But we had U.S. History together this year. We have some mutual friends, too, but we didn’t really hang out much until lately. I spend a lot of time at practice.”

“What sport do you play?”

“I’m on the track team, and I do Tae Kwon Do professionally,” Mulan said with a big grin. “It was either that or gymnastics and my mom said I was probably better suited to hitting things than flips.”

Her face changed completely as what she said seemed to catch up with her and he almost laughed out loud at the first sign of nerves that she’d shown.

“Not that I hit people,” she said hurriedly. “I mean, besides in matches. Even if I wanted to, I’d be in so much trouble with my mom and my instructor and my coach if I did get into fights. I’d be lucky if I got off without my mom sending me to Taiwan to live with my grandma for that.”

So she was a sweet girl with a strict mom and the ability to flip grown men over her head. All things considered, Katie probably could have done worse. He’d seen the meathead boys who liked to trip all over themselves at the sight of her at the mall – hell, he’d seen Bae with girls at that age.

He decided to be the scary dad one more time, just because he could, and fixed Mulan with an assessing stare he’d perfected over years of working as an attorney. He looked her up and down harshly before finally nodding and leaning back against the counter behind him.

“I really just wanted to get a look at you before you took my little girl out again,” he said at last. “But I won’t keep you girls much longer. It was nice to meet you, Mulan.”

He held his hand out again and she shook it again. Katie seemed to have deflated completely, as though tension over whether or not he’d like Mulan had been keeping her from falling over entirely but she was beaming at him.

“It was nice to meet you too,” Mulan replied, slipping her hand into Katie’s quickly. “I promise I’ll get her home safe. My mom keeps a tracker in my car that tells her if I go too fast or brake too hard, so even if I wanted to drive like an idiot I can’t. And my curfew is a half hour ahead of hers.”

“I think I like your mom,” he said. “But I trust my daughter.”

“Thanks, Daddy,” Katie said, reaching out to hug him quickly. “I’ll be good, I promise.”

“You better be,” he replied, kissing the top of his daughter’s head before she released him and and dashed out the door.

He’d been ready for this, he thought. Or at least as ready as he could have been. He hadn’t expected a girl, but he knew now that it was always going to be too soon to let her go.


End file.
